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Yang paid S$3600 of her savings to an agent in promise of more money, better life and to escape from the communist regime of China. But now, she has found herself only the short end of the stick. She works for a meagre S$500 a month as a factory hand in Panasonic Singapore which is located in suburban Bedok. There seems to be an awful regret that she has spent her money on a lousy deal. She has learnt the hard way that her life isn’t any better in democratic ‘Chin-cha-pore’ (Singapore) either.

Similar to those in the bottom 20% of our general population here, her life in Singapore is down to mere existence. Her income of S$500 is insufficient to meet her monthly expenditure. She has worked out a frugal budget though, of $300 for food, $250 for rent and S$60 for transportation, which is $110 more than her wage. To supplement her income, her employer has “generously” given out, in the past, additional allowance of S$150 for housing and S$30 for transportation. With a stipend of S$680, her head is hardly above water.

She works hard for the money

She has a three year old child and her two elderly parents to support back at home. The $60 surplus is inadequate to meet her total financial needs. She needs to work overtime.

Additionally, she works up to 100 hours in overtime in order to make about S$1200 a month. This is on top of the 44 hour work week and she can end up working as many as 72 hours in a typical workweek. The Ministry of Manpower guidelines for overtime states, “An employee can be required to work up to 12 hours a day if the employee gives his consent in writing” (here). It appears that the workers did not give their consent in writing. The employment contract was in English and no translation was made available for the Mandarin speaking workers.

Yang however, is not overly concerned about the long working hours, she is concerned that the 78 hour limit is too low and that 100 hours of overtime hours are insufficient for her to earn the extras. She is willing to work all her waking hours to make as much as she can.

She is hopeful that hard work and determination can see her through all the hardships. She is hopeful that someday she’ll be able to break out of her poverty cycle. But for now, hope is all she has got.

Yang’s passage to Singapore

Her job agent in Hubei China made her many promises. He told her that her she could save as much as $1200 a month and that she could become rich in no time if she were to do overtime in Singapore. So, she was asked to buy her own airline ticket and asked to pay S$3600 as agency fees before her passage to Singapore.

Yang was given a contract in Mandarin which said that she was not forced or coerced into signing it and she was going to Singapore on her own free will. She was not aware of her actual employment terms until she started work in Singapore. In fact, her current employment contract with Panasonic is in English and the company has yet to give her a translation in Mandarin.

When asked if she would consider coming here again, she hesitantly said in Mandarin, “I have to work close to half a year just to earn back the agent fees, of course I would think twice”

Panasonic Singapore Vs Huawel China

There were 14 others we spoke to, who had similar stories to tell. There was one university graduate who was lamenting about how he was short-changed. One said that China was better, yet another said that things were too expensive here. But, also said the people here were cultured and polite.

The graduate worker said that Huawei China paid about S$700 – S$800 as basic pay and he could easily make up to $2000 per month doing a similar job in China. He came here thinking that he could land a white collar job and was hoping to make about $3000 a month.

Union warns employees not to speak up

The workers were warned not to speak-up, negotiate or “create trouble” for the management. They were told that Singapore government had very strict laws and “action” would be taken against those who spoke up.

Some employees received a pay rise of S$1.00 when they became too “vocal.”

Assembly work at Panasonic Singapore

We learnt from the workers that Panasonic Singapore does assembly of refrigerators and air-cons which are exported out of Singapore.

The plausible reason for Panasonic to continue operating in Singapore despite the high rental rates is due to labour laws that permit exploitation of low wage earners and a favourable tax regime.

Is it beneath Singaporeans to work in factories?

Listening to the plight of these workers, it has become apparent to us that industries prefer such low wage workers because these workers often lack the support and backing from unions and the industry bodies in Singapore. A Singaporean worker, on the other hand would have better access, though limited and perfunctory, to unions in Singapore.

One MP said that most Singaporeans do not take these jobs because we Singaporeans are concerned about our dignity and often do not take up menial jobs because we do not want to lose face. Looking at the ruthless exploitation and the wages that Panasonic offers, it makes us wonder if the MP has lost touch with reality and if he seriously wants Singaporeans to work under these conditions? We would like to think that Singaporeans are a whole lot wiser than these migrant workers!

These workers are taking a big risk by standing up and speaking up against our “incompetent” system. Therein lies a lesson for us – there are things that we can learn from them – that we will only be able to find solutions to our social ills by surfacing them in the right forums, by standing up against incompetency in whatever form it may be, and by being the agent of change.

Our fight against inequality and social injustices seems like a long and hard road. TOC is committed and stands shoulder to shoulder with the civil societies in Singapore in fighting these social disparities.